Inmate paintings hanging in courthouse

By Erin McGrath

Published: May 21, 2008

The walls of the Nelson County Courthouse were lined with art created by Central Virginia prison inmates last week, courtesy of two local artists.

Lindsay Eades, of Lovingston, and Rose Hill, of Charlottesville, are directors of From Inside Out, a non-profit program that teaches art to inmates in Buckingham, Dillwyn and Fluvanna prisons.

Hill and Eades put more than 50 pieces of art on display along the hallways of the courthouse, which will host the art until the end of June.

Prisoners take lessons in watercolor, charcoal drawing and acrylic painting from Eades and Hill.

Eades said she and Hill first got the idea while volunteering as art instructors at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail in 2005.

“It was such a great experience, it was so rewarding and we got so much out of it that we wondered if they have anything like that in the prison system,” Eades said.

Learning that the prison system did away with art programs like theirs years ago, the two women formed the From Inside Out project with the hopes of expanding the classes to six prisons in Central Virginia.

The first classes for the project, paid for by several grants, started in January. Eades said lack of funding has kept them from expanding to other prisons.

“We can only teach as much as we can raise the money for,” Eades said.

Each of the art pieces on display in the Nelson County Courthouse are up for sale, with half of the price going back into the program and half going to a program aimed at helping offenders become responsible members of the community.